Decent Earbuds from Best Buy, Target, Stores Like That?

My wife's birthday is this Sunday and I bought her a Sansa Fuze and have been busy loading it up with new songs and tweaking Rockbox ... and I didn't even stop to think about getting better headphones than the ones that came with the Fuze. But now I'm thinking about it ... and I have one day to do something about it.

So ... I'm in Portland, Oregon, and there are Best Buys, Targets, Fred Meyers, stores like that ... can I find any decent (as in better than the ones I have now) earbuds at these brick-and-mortar stores? If so, what brands and model numbers do you recommend?

If there really isn't anything decent available from those places, I could order something off Amazon with next day shipping ... but it would still probably get here a couple hours late ...

Advice? (Besides telling me I should have thought of this earlier.)

EDIT: I think she would prefer a more open sound to an isolated one, just because she goes jogging a lot and needs to hear traffic around her ... I guess that might rule out canal phones ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jackquelegs 

What's your budget approximately?

Thanks for responding! I don't know why I didn't mention that in my first post. Maybe because it is a little complicated.

If I'm going to tell her how much I spent, say ... $20.

If I DON'T tell her how much I spent, $50 to $100.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bennyboy71 

Shure SE535 - you don't want anything too fancy or expensive, as she's female and won't get it.

You are exactly right. When she found out how much I spent on my full-sized headphones ($200)--her mouth dropped open. "I didn't even know they made headphones that expensive!" she said.

I will definitely look into those Shures.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bennyboy71 

Shure SE535 - you don't want anything too fancy or expensive, as she's female and won't get it.

I didn't realize these things were in the $400 range when I responded to your post the first time, Bennyboy, which is why my response doesn't seem to make any sense ... but then again, I'm not sure your post makes any sense either ... I should pay $400 because I "don't want anything too fancy or expensive ... " Are you being serious?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljokerl 

I don't think the SE535 can be found in retail stores. The average consumer would have a coronary when confronted with the price tag. Best buy carries the Klipsch S4 for $80. They aren't the best for the price (compared to what you can get online, etc) but Klipsch keeps a tight hold on pricing so they won't be terribly overpriced. They also carry the S2 which is a little less user-friendly and sounds more like a cheap earphone but still decent. You can also look at the Sennheiser CX280 and CX281, which are relatively new and don't suck as badly as old CX-series Sennheisers.

TEST.Thanks for responding! I think I'll try looking for those Sennheisers, ljokeri. I may not have time to make it to Bestbuy though ... I may have to go to Fred Meyer (kind of a Target/Kmart kind of store). If they don't have the Senns, are there any other low-budget/mass market brands that I should either look for or make sure to avoid?

Someone recommended the JVC HA-FXC50 which Fred Meyer has in the $50 range ... thoughts?